33 of the Best Link Cosplay Pictures You’ll Ever See: The Legend of Zelda Cosplay Project

If you’ve seen our video, “Open Your Eyes,” or followed along with my play-by-play cosplay picture posts, you’re probably familiar with what I’ve come to call the Legend of Zelda Cosplay Project.

This project began as an effort to do cosplay in reverse, as it were.

Go to any Comic Con and you’ll see hundreds of cosplayers trying to look like Link from the Legend of Zelda games. There are a lot of amazing Link cosplays out there, but for this project, we wanted to do something different. We wanted to pull Link out of the pixelverse and reimagine him as a hero in the real world.

The character Link doesn’t exist in a vacuum, so we couldn’t believably pull transport him into reality without pulling the whole world of Hyrule along with him.

The result was something truly amazing. Link and Hyrule literally came to life for us, with cosplay action like you’ve never seen before and epic battles against fearsome foes—all set in the most fantasy-like places our incredible planet has to offer!

Now, together for the first time, I bring you the complete set of Legend of Zelda cosplay pictures that Aden (Link) and I created over the last two years!

Click on the pictures to see the full size images or—to learn more about the research and source material behind the pictures (or just to remind yourself of what the original monster looked like)—click on the links in each section to learn more about how we created each image. Enjoy!

1. Fyrus, the Twilit Igniter

Remember Darbus, the Goron from Twilight Princess who suffered from a severe case of spontaneous combustion? Turns out he’s even scarier in real life…

32. Twinrova, the Sorceress Sisters

In all seriousness, though, this picture is one of my favorites from the project (and I’m actually in it, believe it or not!). Find out why here!

33. Ganondorf, King of Evil

Last, but not least, it’s the King of Evil himself!

If this picture doesn’t bring back memories of facing down evil incarnate on the plains of Hyrule, I don’t know what will! Here’s how we made this epic Link cosplay picture!

Summary

From mini-bosses to final fights, from reverential scenes to chaotic flocking chickens, these pictures are our attempt to capture all the magic of the Legend of Zelda franchise and pair it with the incomparable beauty of the real world.

This adventure may be over (for now), but our creative commitment is as strong as ever. Check out our other posts to discover more incredible quality cosplay and fan art from more of your favorite universes like Avatar, the Last Airbender and The Lord of the Rings!

You can expect some more Zelda creations in the future too. Since we began this project Nintendo released a new Adult-Link flagship game: Breath of the Wild, and it has our creative wheels spinning!

I hope you enjoyed this creative tribute! Be sure to watch our animated video montage to see the powerful story that this collection of pictures tells!

Austin is something of a Renaissance man. You name it, he's probably done it: leatherworking, armorsmithing, Photoshop, scrimshaw, music composition, screenplay writing, the list goes on and on. When he's not working on a cosplay project, you can either find him working as a physical therapist or enjoying the beautiful San Juan islands.